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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25925842">The Darkest Dungeon</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zehntacles/pseuds/Zehntacles'>Zehntacles</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Darkest Dungeon (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, The Faun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:22:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,274</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25925842</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zehntacles/pseuds/Zehntacles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
  <p>Travelers reflect together on what would possibly drive someone to be desperate enough that they willingly crawl through the most horrid places imaginable.</p>
</div>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Darkest Dungeon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’ve thought about it through and through and at the end of the day I can’t say I understand it.  Why pigs?”  The man covered in dark cloth, leather and iron asked standing above a pile of rotting meat that was once a towering monstrosity of pig flesh.  Impossibly large clever laying on the ground still gripped in its giant hand and organs that had barely been held in before now spilling out of freshly carved openings in its skin.  There was a crown upon its head that suggested it was revered as some kind of royalty or leader to the other masses of pig men that roamed the Warrens.  Now it wasn’t even worth it’s weight in ham.<br/>
“Pig meat is like man meat.”  Boudica answer, a woman with snow white skin and hair as red as the blood stains on her leather armor.  The smaller pig man that had been directing the large monster was impaled on the end of her Glaive, her foot planted on its face as she pulled up hard to free the weapon from where it was stuck.  The sight didn’t upset Tardif as his axe had found itself stuck in a variety of things in the past with his work as a bounty hunter.  Her comment was far more unnerving.<br/>
“You sound very confident in that answer.”  He replied to her.  “What was your method to determine this?”<br/>
“Taste.”  Boudica told him, picking up the flag made of skin that the small pig man had been using to direct the monster.  Deciding to keep it as a trophy.  “...so I heard anyway.”  Averting her gaze from Tardif’s she began searching the room for other clues or valuables that their mysterious client could use to fortify their base of operations.  Not far away from himself was another man examining the large grotesque remains.  His head was wrapped in a ceremonial cloth common in his homeland and he wore robes of finer quality than Tardif would have recommended for traipsing through a place as disgusting as this.  The outfit made him look like he belonged in a library but the odd skull with a candle atop it that he carried made him more situated to be in this place than the bounty hunter himself.<br/>
“She’s not incorrect.  Humans and swine are close enough that you can substitute one for another and likely not know the difference.  Be it a recipe or for a ritual.”  Pulling out a knife he carved into the face of the monster and ripped the eye out of the socket to study it.  “Hmm... was it blind all along?  Maybe that’s why he had the smaller creature with him?  As a guiding?”<br/>
“Well isn’t that comforting information to know.”  Tardif sighed, feeling the stress build up ever so slightly more in his mind.  Aside from the taxation this place took on his body what it took on his sanity was far higher a cost.  He wondered if it was possible to leave these lands and still be right in the head?<br/>
“Found a hefty sum this time.” Missandei spoke up from a corner where she’d been digging through bags that had been gathered by the monsters.  Her body easily the most armor plated among them and the heavy Arbalest crossbow on her back.  His other two compatriots could wear on him at times but Missandei at least felt a little more sane than the rest.  If nothing else he was at least more confident she hadn’t eaten another human being than the rest of them.  “Jewels, documents, deeds... even some bandages.”<br/>
“Let’s fill up the packs and make a camp before returning to the hamlet.”  Boudica suggested, helping her team mate load their new found riches into their bags.  While they did so Tardif found his scholarly friend beginning to unpack the fire wood.<br/>
“Alhazred, I beg of you, let us not make a camp next to the giant corpse of the monster we just laid waste.  I’ll already see the thing in my dreams.”  At the request Alhazred hesitated and looked at his fellow adventurers standing before him.<br/>
“Do we not want to examine the remains?”  Alhazred asked.  “No one?  Just me?  Really?  Well I guess if we must...”  He began to pack up the camping supplies again seemingly dejected at the lack of opportunity to study the creature further.  “Though we may have to battle even further to another room with enough space for us all.”<br/>
“I’ll gladly shoot dead anything that gets between me and dinner.”  Missandei assured him.<br/>
“Maybe we’ll come across some bacon for dinner tonight.”  Boudica suggested and there was an audible groan at the idea of letting a single one of these monsters come near their lips.  Be they originally pig or not.  Tardif worried she might not concern herself with how much of them was human currently or before the experiments if she started to slice of steaks to eat.</p><p>	Stalking through the hallways with what little torchlight they had left the adventurers were fortunate in running into no further obstacles.  Perhaps after slaying the giant swine the others had chosen to flee.  Or maybe they’d just slaughtered so many on the way to it there was no one left to oppose them.  Either way they were soon in a room that smell slightly less disgusting than the rest and huddled around a camp fire.  Alhazred had spoken some of those words that Tardif couldn’t place but he knew they weren’t from his homeland and that he’d heard one or two of those phrases uttered by the strange cultists they’d fought against.  Still he assured his allies that the things in the night wouldn’t sneak up on them while they slept and he even used some of their medicinal herbs to purify a barrel of the swill these pigs called ale so they’d all have a little something to drink together.<br/>
“This is the craziest job I ever took.”  Missandei said as she drank from her mug.  “Goddamn literal pit of horrors we’re running around inside of.  I heard the Weald wasn’t just full of bandits but it’s actually haunted.”<br/>
“Smell’s bad.”  Boudica nodded to her.  “Not just here or the Weald but in the town too.  As if the very ground we’re walking on is poisoned.”<br/>
“It may very well be.”  Alhazred replied to her statement.  “All we know is the previous owner of the manor did... something.  Something awful that lead to all of this.  Even I’m unsure of what it could have been.”  He took a drink of his mug and looked above him.  “Not only that I feel that this place we’re inside of has to be older than the manor above it.  Either the previous owner discovered this place and turned it into this or he simply added to the existing piles.”  While they all aired their grievances with the job to also relieve their stress it begged a question that Tardif couldn’t let go of.<br/>
“So... why’d you take the job in the first place?”  He asked of the group.  “Me, I’m just a lowly bounty hunter.  Sure this isn’t quite my normal client or normal job but killing for money is what I’m already know for.  So then... why are all you here?”<br/>
“There isn’t much difference between a bounty hunter and an assassin when you describe it like that.”  Missandei said, eyeing him.  “Y’know I’ve never seen you without that mask on.”<br/>
“Bad for business to have my face out while I’m wearing the uniform.”  Tardif answered.  “Besides if I was to make a guess, I’d say you’re a former soldier?  Killing for money is about the same way I’d describe that as well.”  Missandei made a sour face and finished off her ale, passing the mug to Alhazred who kindly filled it again from the barrel they’d carried with them.  “Didn’t answer my question though, why would you come here with your skills?  I’d think you could find all sorts of work.”<br/>
“Guess I’m still running away after all.”  Missandei answered, thanking her friend as he passed the mug back to her.  “Being in an army didn’t sit well with me anymore and the pay was good to come here.  So I came.”<br/>
“I see.”  Tardif nodded slowly, head shifting towards the other woman at the fire.  “And you Boudica?”<br/>
“Money.”  She answer quickly, looking into the fire as she thought deeper.  “No, I... it’s not money.  I just said that because everyone else did.  Because... I’m running too.  Or maybe I’m just lost.  Needed something to do.  Something to swing my blade at.  I... do I not know why I came here?”  She rested her head in her hands, the stress of this expedition clearly having gotten to her far worse than the rest of them.  “Did the spirits lead me here?  Tell me to come here?  But what if they didn’t... what if they never spoke to me?  Father, are you ashamed of me?  Why am I here?  I feel like I’m going ma-”  She was pulled out of the spiral she was falling into when a hand fell on her shoulder.  Looking to her side Missandei put her full mug of ale into her hands and then passed the empty one to Alhazred who kindly filled it for her again.<br/>
“I lost my dad as well.  Miss him... every day.”  She said to her.  “You don’t need to think too hard on it.  At least not now.  If money is good enough for me and Tardif it’s good enough for you too.”<br/>
“...thank you.”  Boudica said, sighing deeply and taking a drink from her mug.  “Money... or maybe just easy food and bed.”<br/>
“If this is ‘easy’ food and bed then I’d hate to fight what you consider the hard way to earn it.”  Tardif said, turning his head to Alhazred.  “You... I don’t think it’s just money, is it?”<br/>
“Very astute.”  He answered, sampling a drink himself.  “Money is useful of course but it’s not what I require.  There are things here, answers to questions I won’t find anywhere else.”<br/>
“You sure you want those answers?”  Tardif asked him.  “Looking at this place, at the humans that were allied with those pig things, can’t imagine knowing what they know is comforting.”<br/>
“Knowledge can sometimes come with a risk.  Learning your skills also had its fair share of dangers did it not?”  He asked Tardif who was about to argue that they’re very different things but couldn’t say that learning how to hunt and kill men didn’t mean he was never far from harm.  “All of you learned your skills with a great deal of risk attached to them.  That’s what makes you valuable, makes you ‘worth the money’ as it were.  I too was hired for similar reasons, I simply plan to take more from here than physical treasures.”  Boudica watched him from across the fire light hesitantly.<br/>
“Learning to kill a wolf doesn’t mean I lay in its den.  Aren’t you too close to the thing you’re learning to kill?”<br/>
“That’s the thing, killing it isn’t my goal.  Understanding it is.”  He answered.  “The man that built this place sought the same thing as myself and while I don’t know his intentions with this knowledge I can see how it was misused.  As if every warning he came across was an invitation to him.  To already have so much... so very much and then go as far as to consume the natural world around you.  While his methods may have been extraordinary his greed and desires were such a simple, crude things.”  He looked up at the strange markings and laid out remains all around him on the walls again.  Imagining what horrors a man must have seen daily to have filled a place with so many monsters.  Missandei spoke up to put an end to the uncomfortable silence.<br/>
“Let’s hope once you learn everything you came to see we can close this place down and return to our dreary, ordinary lives with treasures in pocket.”  At her stated hope Boudica lifted her mug above the fire.<br/>
“A toast to the greedy noble who brought us together and left his treasures about for us to keep.”  She suggested and Missandei lifted her mug as well.<br/>
“I’ll toast to that.”<br/>
“Yes, to the old man that made all the mistakes.”  Alhazred said, raising his glass.<br/>
“To the crazy old coot, thanks for leaving us nothing but horrors and riches.”  Tardif chimed in, all four drinking their glasses together.</p><p>	It was that small moment of silence, as they all let the liquid slide down their throats, that each adventurer heard the distinct sound of metal scraping against stone.</p><p>	Quietly they all lowered their glasses, looking around the fire to confirm that indeed each of them had heard this sound.  Slowly they searched with their eyes, listening as the faint noise became easier to trace among the noises that echoed through the warren tunnels and the crackling of the fire before them all.  Eventually Boudica’s hand raised into the air and she extended her finger, pointing just past Alhazred to the wall behind him.  Slowly they all gathered their weapons, walking towards the wall as they could all tell now the noise was indeed coming from this direction.<br/>
Missandei approached first, placing her palm against the filthy wall and letting it slide about, eventually finding a crevice that was too straight to be a simple crack in the stone.  Tardif approached to help and between them they discovered the outline of a door to a hidden room and Tardif cleared away years of dirt and filth to reveal a keyhole clearly set.  Realizing what this meant Alhazred patted his sleeves in the dark until he was able to produce a simple key, one of a handful that had been given to them by the heir of this accursed land in case they discovered any of the old family’s chests or cabinets.  Sliding it in and turning the four adventurer’s felt their hearts skip as it made a loud click to inform them that it had indeed been unlocked.  Stepping back he let the others pull the door open for him as Alhazred stepped inside with a torch to light up the room.<br/>
Red eyes flashed at him before a figure darting away from the light to a corner of the hidden room, Alhazred leaping back with a surprised shout as he dropped the torch.<br/>
“What!?”  Tardif shouted in reply as he came to his friend’s aid.  “What was it, what did you see!?”<br/>
“I... I don’t know.”  Alhazred answered.  “It was fast... too fast for me to make it out.”<br/>
“Whatever it is let’s just flush it out.”  Boudica said, grabbing the torch and tossing it into the room.  The fire light allowed them to see through the darkness as they all slowly piled in, weapons in hand and ready to strike.  “There, in the corner!  I see it!”<br/>
“It’s... a girl.”  Tardif said surprised, mostly because he wasn’t completely correct.  Indeed there was something female, in the shape of a human in the dim light.  But parts of her were all wrong and didn’t resemble a person at all.  As their eyes adjusted Tardif could see she was sitting on a bed and pressed against the wall away from them, body shaking.  “What is this place?”<br/>
“It looks like a bedroom.”  Missandei answered, walking deeper in and lifting up the torch in her hand.  As she swung it around to look at the figure before them they all could make out her body further.   Her arms wrapped around her legs revealed one was a cloven hoof and covered in thick hair that was more like fur, while her other leg was a sharp point of a spike that was attached to her knee.  One hand still had what resembled fingers along with more fur while her other was like a pair of giant scissors attached to her elbow.  Ears that extended out like an animal, and wooden antlers that protruded from her head.  “Is she a prisoner?”<br/>
“More like an experiment.”  Alhazred said as he examined her body.  “She may have started as a girl from the hamlet but now... well, I guess this is further proof of the madness that old bastard got up to.”  While they were all watching in wonder Alhazred noticed that Missandei had placed her crossbow on the ground and was approaching her.  “I don’t think that’s wise.”<br/>
“Hey there girl... I’m not going to hurt you.”  Missandei said in a soothing voice, walking towards her very slowly.  “Sorry we barged into your home like this.  We didn’t know.”  The girl watched her carefully, glancing up at the men behind her every so often and then back down at the woman before her.  “Don’t worry about them.  I know they look mean but they’re actually alright.”<br/>
“I don’t think I look mean...”  Alhazred murmured, which Tardif couldn’t help but chuckle at.  The girl seemed to relax eventually and lowered her legs back down to the ground as she sat on the bed.  As her back straightened Tardif could see the wild, full length of hair that ran down her back.  Two other points of interest to him were that the poor girl was completely without clothing and that the exposed stitches all over her body were bleeding in various spots.  Then suddenly she spoke.<br/>
“Is it time?”  She asked, startling all of them as they looked between each other.  Missandei taking the lead again.<br/>
“Time... for what?”<br/>
“For the wedding.”  She said.  “Is that why you came?  To take me?  To the wedding?”  She asked and it left all of them speechless.  While they were scrambling to understand what all of this was Tardif latched onto the most obvious question to him.<br/>
“Who’s getting married?”<br/>
“I am!”  The girl said, sounding almost cheerful.  “Well... I guess I am.  I dunno what a wedding is.  But they said I could wear a dress.”<br/>
“She sounds like a child.”  Alhazred said in wonder.<br/>
“That’s cause she practically is one.” Boudica spoke up from behind them, having lit a second torch to look at the rest of the room.  Tardif turned around to see there wasn’t much too it.  A table with a single, dirty bowl on it and a bucket that probably contained something he didn’t want to see.  But beyond that there were drawings all over the wall.  “This must have been the scratching we heard.  She was carving these into the stone.”<br/>
“There’s so many...”  Tardif said in amazement, looking at all the simple childish drawings of all sorts of things.  People, pigs, flowers, trees, what may have been either the sun or the moon with a face on it, and just scribbles everywhere.  “How long has she been here?”<br/>
“Say darling, who are you getting married to?”  Missandei asked the girl.<br/>
“Umm... I dunno his name.  They said he’s important.  I only saw him one time and he was really big.  They told me that I’d be better than my sisters cause um... uh... it was cause I’m... pure?  That’s what they said.”  She nodded her head, her ears flopping as she did.  “I dunno what ‘pure’ is, but they said my sisters weren’t it anymore so it had to be me... so are we going to the wedding?”  She asked looking around the room curiously.<br/>
“How are we supposed to answer that?”  Boudica asked the group who all seemed at a loss for how to handle this situation.  Tardif had to admit that this was more confounding than slaying the mass of pig monsters they’d come across up to now.<br/>
“Do you want to get married?”  Tardif asked her, the girl looking confused by the question and kicking her feet a little to entertain herself.  Missandei giving her plenty of room to avoid the spike on her leg.<br/>
“I dunno.  I guess not.  It doesn’t seem very fun.”  She said.  “But they told me I can’t leave this room until it’s time for the wedding.”<br/>
“Who are ‘they’?”  Alhazred asked curiously.  “It seems they decided a lot of things for you.”<br/>
“They’re the people in the scary masks.”  She answered.  “I um... I don’t really like them.  I kinda didn’t like anyone... except my sisters.  But they’ve been meaner since those people came.  Now I’m all alone... I guess.”  She said dipping her head down.<br/>
“Not anymore you’re not.”  Missandei said, standing up and putting her hand out to the girl.  “Let’s get you out of this dirty room.  What’s your name, sweetie?”<br/>
“My name?  I... I dunno.”  She answered.  “No one ever told me it.”<br/>
“Then we’ll get you one when we get back.”  She answered, the girl taking her hand and standing up shakily.  “We were having dinner just now, do you want some too?”<br/>
“Okay, the people haven’t fed me yet so I need yummy for my tummy.”  She said happily.  The others watched her hesitantly, except for Alhazred who was scratching his chin in contemplation while he looked her over.<br/>
“Fascinating, she’s not like the others.  She even looks different, like a Fawn.”  While it seemed nice everyone was getting along Tardif felt like he had to be the one to express some skepticism on the behalf of the team.<br/>
“Missandei.”  He began, the woman and her new friend stopping short of leaving out the hidden room.  “Are we sure about this?  We don’t know a thing about her... at all.  Not to mention everything we’ve met since we came into this place has been trying to kill and eat us.”  His objections felt logical but he didn’t see her return a gaze of understanding.<br/>
“When I was a little girl all I wanted my whole life was for someone to help me find my way out of the darkness.  I swear to all that’s holy, unholy and whatever the hell Alhazred talks to I won’t leave another child to suffer like I did.”  Her mind made up she exited the room and took the strange girl to the fire side, the other three exiting the room as well and Boudica being the first to join them.  Sitting next to her while the Fawn looked at the plate and fork curiously before her as if she’d never seen such things.  Missandei removed a loaf of bread from their packs and handed it to her.  Which the Fawn skewered on the end of her scissor like hand and nibbled at.<br/>
“Oh!  What this!?  It’s so yummy!”<br/>
“That’s bread.”  Missandei answered.  “Little old but still good.”<br/>
“I like Little Old Bread.”  She said happily, using her other hand to rip off a bigger peace to eat.  Looking to her side she could see Boudica smelling her and the Fawn mimicked her actions, smelling the woman in return.  “What you smelling?”<br/>
“You.”  Boudica answered.  “Your scent is... different.  We certainly need to get you a bath.”  The Fawn’s head cocked to the side curiously.  “You’ve never had a bath before, have you?”  She asked and the Fawn shook her head, her point tail swishing behind her.  “Then we’ll need to introduce you to it, city folk don’t prefer the smell of the wild.  Even if it is natural.”  Glancing down she could see the blood still seeping from her wounds.  “Not to mention cleaning out those cuts.”<br/>
“I bleed?”  She asked, lifting her arm up.  “I bleed.  I bleed lots.”  Her voice growing distant as if this happened more times than she liked.  Though was surprised when soft hand touched her skin and began to wrap bandages around the cuts.<br/>
“That’ll hold for a while.”  Missandei said.  “At least till we can get you properly cared for.”  While the girls sat around the fire the men watched from a safe distance, not intruding as the unusual girl was made to feel comfortable around her new friends.  Tardif crossed his arms and sighed.<br/>
“I don’t like it.  She’s clearly another one of the experiments down here.  How do we know she won’t attack us while we sleep?”  Alhazred stood next to him and shook his head gently.<br/>
“We’ve more to fear from Boudica eating us in the night because she grows hungry than this strange girl.”  He answered, Tardif wishing he didn’t have the mask on right now so Alhazred could see his face.  “It’s true.”<br/>
“Which part?”<br/>
“Both are accurate.  She said they chose her to be a bride, probably to that monstrosity in the crown we slayed not hours ago.  Because she was ‘pure’.  Do you know what they likely meant by that?”<br/>
“She’s a virgin?”  Tardif replied, figuring that was likely it.  Possibly the pick of the crop to give to their ruling pig god as a tribute.<br/>
“That’s likely, but there may be more to it.  She’s different from the rest because in her I feel a lack of something that everything else in this place carries, including us.”<br/>
“And what might that be?”<br/>
“Evil.”  He answered solemnly, Tardif feeling a chill run up his spine at having to acknowledge that possible truth.  As time passed they all gathered around the fire together and eventually slept through the night.  The next day leaving the horrid place with treasures in tow, including one very unusual but unique treasure compared to the rest.  Wide eyed, unique, damaged, but purer than the gems in their packs.  And more valuable.  There was no price that could be put on having another ally against the darkness of these dungeons.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Story Edited by DeadZod<br/>Cover art by Senshion at https://twitter.com/senshionart</p></blockquote></div></div>
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